LG GM360 Viewty Snap and GT400 Viewty Smile review: One for everybody

LG GT400 Viewty Smile 360-degree spin

The LG GT400 Viewty Smile measures 107 x 54.5 x 11.8 mm – almost exactly the same size as the Viewty Snap. It’s heavier though, at 98 grams. The finish is matte, with brushed-metal look, similar to the KM570 Cookie Gig. Fingerprints are much less of an issue here than on the Snap.

Here’s the Viewty Smile pros and cons breakdown.

LG Viewty Smile key features:

• 3" 256K-color resistive TFT touchscreen of WQVGA resolution (240 x 400 pixels)
• Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support
• 3G with HSDPA (3.6 Mbps)
• 5 megapixel autofocus camera
• QVGA@20fps video recording
• Hot-swappable microSD card slot, up to 16GB
• Standard microUSB port (charging)
• Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP
• Accelerometer for screen automatic rotation
• Landscape on-screen QWERTY keyboard; Handwriting recognition
• FM radio with RDS
• Office document viewer
• Widget-enhanced interface
• Smart dialing (numbers only)
• Music recognition service

LG Viewty Smile main disadvantages:

• No Wi-Fi
• No GPS
• No standard 3.5mm audio jack
• No social networking integration
• Low resolution screen
• Camera has no flash or protective cover
• Poor video recording
• Poor sunlight legibility
• Maximum email attachment size is 2.2MB (both ways)
• No DivX/XviD video support; low-res videos only

LG Viewty Smile design and construction

Visually, the LG GT400 Viewty Smile takes after the LG Arena and the Cookie Gig. It’s not exactly an attention grabber but it’s like a pair of jeans – it goes with anything. The brushed metal finish on the back gives it a subtle sleek look.

The LG GT400 has more subdued looks

The display on the LG Viewty Smile is practically the same unit as the one on the Snap – a 3” WQVGA resistive touchscreen. The sensitivity is satisfactory and you can use the screen with gloves too.

Good brightness, contrast and colors make the display pretty attractive looking although its resolution is nothing special. Still, it’s OK most of the time, failing only with text at very low zoom levels. Sunlight legibility is not particularly good much like the Viewty Snap.

A WQVGA resistive display on the Viewty Smile

Again, same as the Snap, the front of the LG Viewty Smile is populated by the earpiece that is also the loudspeaker, as well hardware menu key and call knobs.

The video-call camera and earpiece on top • The three keys at the bottom

The left side of the GT400 Viewty Smile holds the microSD slot, which is covered by a plastic flap. It can handle 16GB microSD cards and there’s no initialization period, you can access the card right away.

The right side is pretty crowded. Starting at the top, there’s the microUSB port (again covered by a plastic flap). It has a triple function – data port, charger plug and headphone jack. We really prefer the standard 3.5mm audio jack of the Snap over this setup.

The microSD slot on the left • microUSB port, volume rocker, lock and shutter key on the right

Further down, you have the volume rocker – a long press on the down volume button toggles the Silent profile (this actually works on the Snap as well). Below the volume rocker is the Lock/Hold key and the shutter key.

The top is completely bare, while the bottom holds the mic pinhole.

Nothing on top • just the mic pinhole on the bottom

The back side of the LG GT400 Viewty Smile hosts the 5 megapixel camera lens with no extras – no LED flash or lens protection.

The 1000 mAh Li-Ion battery of the Viewty Smile is quoted at 340 hours of stand-by and 3 hours and 30 minutes of talk time. That’s quite a bit lower than the Snap. Our test unit wasn’t behaving too well (battery kept dropping way too fast) so we can’t be sure on that.

The 5 megapixel camera lens is prone to scratches • The 1000 mAh battery

The battery cover has brushed metal finish but it’s made of plastic – still, it’s pleasant to the touch and does a good job of concealing fingerprints, unlike the glossy plastic on the Snap.

LG GT400 Viewty Smile in hand

The LG GT400 Viewty Smile is just 11.8mm thick and with a sub-100 gram weight it’s easily pocketable. It sits well in the hand, though the right side is a bit too labored – all those controls aren’t very easy to use and your thumb has no controls to use.